UK - Gun-toting youth at railway station

[John Ashworth]

Gun-toting teen still at large
Exclusive Neal Keeling and Nicola Dowling
Manchester Evening News
20/ 9/2007

A SCHOOLBOY brazenly brandishes what appears to be an AK47 assault rifle on a railway platform in this chilling CCTV image [attached] captured in the middle of the afternoon.

The boy, aged about 14, aimed the weapon at a terrified crane driver working on the opposite side of the tracks at Newton Station in Hyde.

But even though the workman's boss immediately dialled 999, a dispute between police and their British Transport counterparts meant the gun-toting thugs evaded capture and are still at large.

The exasparated boss then sent the pictures to the police. He later passed them on to the M.E.N.

We have shown the images to ballistic experts, and they believe the weapon is a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle. They say there is a every possibilty that it is real.

Crane driver David Wood has told how the drama unfolded. He saw one teenager take the gun from a plastic bin liner, fit it with an ammunition magazine, and then pass it to the other boy - who aimed it directly at him.

Mr Wood, 25, said: "I was fearing for my own safety, it was very threatening.

"I immediately radioed my office to say they had a gun."

His boss, Frank Ridley, the director of Premier Waste Services, targeted his CCTV on to the platform and captured a series of startling images. He called Greater Manchester Police at 4.54pm.

It is understood GMP called British Transport Police two minutes later, but GMP did not send an armed response unit and no officers went out.

GMP

It is understood that as a plain clothes GMP policeman prepared to go, they discovered the boys had got on a train bound for Hattersley and advised BTP to stop the train and send their own officers.

But just before 6pm, BTP refused - insisting it was a GMP job. GMP then told BTP the yobs could be in another force area and they should tell the relevant force.

No one from either force interviewed Mr Wood or Mr Ridley. Mr Ridley sent a colleague with a CCTV image to Hyde police station the next day.

Mr Ridley said: "When you see this kind of thing in real life, it is really terrifying."

Mr Wood, said: "I saw one of them take the gun out of a bag and straight away I thought it looked like an AK47.

"I could not believe it. They were pointing the gun at the crane as if intending to shoot at the glass around my cab."

A spokesman for GMP said: "Based on the information we had at the time, a careful assessment was made by a senior, experienced officer as to whether an armed response vehicle should be deployed.

"As there was little information and no immediate threat to life it was decided that an armed response vehicle was not necessary. However, as a precaution, plain clothes officers were sent to further assess the situation.

"A short time after the initial call - within 15 minutes - the youth had got on a train. GMP did not receive any reports of further incidents to pass onto BTP."

A spokesman for British Transport Police said: "BTP are investigating. The call was initially made to GMP, who subsequently contacted BTP. By the time the alleged route taken by the suspect was clarified, there was insufficient time to deploy appropriate resources."

The incident comes weeks after the M.E.N. revealed images of two teenage girls caught on CCTV brandishing replica handguns in the city centre. The 15-year-olds were later arrested and cautioned.